California State University, School of Social Work
Master’s in Social Work Comprehensive Exam
Spring 2016
The Master’s of Social Work program requires students to satisfactorily complete a
culminating activity: a thesis, a community-based project, or a comprehensive examination as a
condition of graduation. The culminating activity serves as an integrative experience in graduate
education.
This Comprehensive Oral Examination is structured as an integrative paper
incorporating the student’s best work. The Comprehensive Oral Examination should reflect
advanced practice knowledge, skills and values applied to a micro, mezzo, or macro level case or
effort from the Concentration-Year practicum. Students should choose a case or effort with
which they have worked extensively. Each student will write a maximum 12-page paper, not
including references, which analyzes the case while integrating core social work content. Please
make sure to use 12-point font and at least one-inch margins. Students should look at the case
retrospectively, discussing not only what was actually done on the case, but what could have
been done given what the student knows about the population, problem and intervention from
course material, practice experience and the relevant literature.
Students should organize their paper according to the following:
1. Introduction
A. Identify the case, your level of involvement in the case, and whether it is a micro,
mezzo, or macro level case.
B. Discuss the presenting problem and relevant client information.
C. Discuss how diversity affect his/her/their life, experience with the problem,
relationship with the agency, relationship with you and your co-workers, and any
other relevant issues related to diversity.
D. Discuss how issues of social justice can be seen in this case, and how the social
work value of increasing social justice might have influenced your work in this
case.
E. Discuss how social work values and ethics affected your work with this case.
2. Literature Review
Provide a basic overview of the research and/or conceptual literature related to this
case. Specifically, describe how issues related to this presenting problem have been
addressed in the literature. Provide a discussion of the literature that guides your
understanding of the population and/or the problem, and potential interventions that
could be or were used in this case. You should review and cite a minimum of three
peer-reviewed articles, at least one of which should be an empirical research study.
3. Body of the Paper
A. Policy – Discuss how at least one federal, state, county, local or agency policy has
an impact on this case. You can discuss how it shaped the work you did, how it
shapes the lives of the client, how it affects the work that the agency does, etc.
B. Human Behavior and the Social Environment – Discuss a theoretical
framework that did or could have guided your work on this case. Discuss how the
theory offers insight about the client, the population group, the problem and/or the
intervention you chose. Examples of possible theories include: developmental,
organizational, attachment, trauma, stress and coping, ecological systems, power,
and empowerment. Make sure to clearly tie the theory to your case.
C. Practice – Describe the intervention, why it was chosen, what you did, how it
worked, why it was appropriate for this client, and what intervention might have
proven more effective, based on what you learned and discussed in the literature
review and from your theoretical framework.
4. Outcome Evaluation
A. How did you, or could you have, evaluated the intervention to determine if it
was successful. This should include a discussion of what “success” might
mean in this case.
B. Discuss what you learned from this case that might shape the work you do in
the future, what you still need to know to work with this client population,
problem and/or intervention, and how you plan to continue to learn this
material in the future.
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The Comprehensive Examination must be completed during the student’s last
academic term with a submission date of no later than Friday, March 4, 2016, 5:00
p.m. The exam will be turned in online, using a Turnitin link that will be set up for
this purpose. Students will receive instructions for accessing the link in late January.
The actual writing of the Comprehensive Examination is solely the graduate student’s
responsibility.
The Comprehensive Examination cannot be more than twelve pages of narrative text,
excluding references. Any text beyond twelve pages will not be considered in the
evaluation of the exam, this includes appendices, charts, and downloaded
documents.
The Comprehensive Examination will be read and evaluated by two faculty members
who serve on the Comprehensive Exam Committee. Each section will receive a score of “pass”
or “needs revision.” All sections must be passed to pass the exam. In the case of disagreement on
the part of the two faculty readers, a third faculty member will review the Comprehensive
Examination to cast the deciding vote. The Comprehensive Examination will be graded on the
breadth, depth, and application of the core content areas to the case.
Comprehensive Examinations where any sections are evaluated as needing revision will
be returned to the student to rewrite those sections. Students then will have to rewrite those
sections and submit to Comprehensive Committee Chair, Dr. Seema Sehrawat by March 24th,
2016. Evaluators will provide written comments and instructions for revisions and/or
rewriting. The Office of Graduate Studies’ rules allow students to submit only one revised
Comprehensive Examination.
*Please note: Faculty, including writing faculty, will not read, correct, or critique
Comprehensive Examinations prior to submission; however, faculty including field
instructors may discuss ideas and concepts with student authors.